Nandi's Big Mistake

Now, Lord Shiva had a great white bull named Nandi, strong and faithful, who carried his messages down to the people on earth.

One day, Shiva called Nandi to him. “I have an important message for the people,” he said. “Go down to earth and tell them this: they should take a good oil-bath every day, to keep healthy, and they should eat a full meal just once a month, for they have plenty stored. Now go, and tell them carefully.”

So Nandi galloped down to earth, gathered all the people together, and announced in his great booming voice, “Hear me! Lord Shiva commands that you all eat a good meal every single day, and take an oil-bath once a month!”

But oh dear. Nandi had got it completely backwards.

When Shiva discovered the muddle, he was dismayed. For if all the people were now going to eat a full meal every single day, they would need far, far more food than the earth was growing. There simply would not be enough.

So Shiva turned to his bull, half cross and half resigned. “Nandi,” he said, “because of your mistake, the people will now need much more grain than before. So this is what you must do. You will go and live among them on earth, and you will help them work the fields and plough the land, so that they can grow all the extra food they will need.”

And so the bull came down to live among people, and from that day the cattle have helped us plough and farm and bring in the harvest. And that is why, at the harvest festival of Pongal, on the special day set aside for cattle, people lovingly bathe their bulls and cows, paint their horns in bright colours, hang garlands around their necks, and thank them, for all the quiet, patient help they give in growing our food.